10 Worst Acceptance Speeches

In 2010, Mariah Carey responded to the Breakthrough Actress honor bestowed upon her by the Palm Springs International Film Festival with a rambling acceptance speech in which she appeared kind of tipsy, accidentally bumped the microphone and let a curse word slip out. In that addled spirit, we present to you 10 other contenders for the title of worst and/or least appropriate award acceptance speech.

Kathy Griffin's humor stems largely from the fact that she is proudly, unapologetically crude. After all, that's why she was receiving the Best Reality Program Emmy, for My Life on the D-List, at a ceremony that preceded the live televised show.

Her remarks, however, sent religious groups into a tizzy and as a result, were never aired: "A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus. Suck it, Jesus. This award is my god now." Wrong time, wrong place.

Jolie's speech wasn't bad so much as it was creepy. Upon arriving at the podium to accept Best Supporting Actress for her (quite excellent) performance in Girl, Interrupted, Jolie proclaimed, "I'm so in love with my brother right now!" Given how she hung on him during her trot down the pre-show red carpet, people started getting ideas.

Actresses are dramatic by their very nature. We get this. That said, the sheer outpouring of emotion when Paltrow claimed the Best Actress statuette for Shakespeare in Love felt syrupy and overwrought even by the standards of daytime soaps.

Over the course of 365 (!) words, Paltrow individually thanked every person she'd ever met, alive or dead. By the time she got around to thanking her grandfather ("you have created a beautiful family who loves you and loves each other more than anything"), the faces of audience members had long since frozen in a collective cringe.

The 1998 Oscars served as a coronation for Titanic, which claimed most of the night's major prizes. What wasn't expected was auteur Cameron's lack of grace upon accepting the Best Director and Best Picture trophies.

First he called for a moment of silence to honor the victims of the disaster. Seconds later, he announced that he was "the king of the world!" and suggested that he'd consume a few cold ones later that evening. Classy.

When Lahti was announced as the winner of the Best Actress in a Drama (TV) globe, she didn't immediately make her way up to the stage to accept the bauble. That's because-as she informed viewers a minute or two later-she'd been using the bathroom when she heard her name announced. Happily, the question of whether or not Lahti had time to wash her hands on the way out was left unanswered.

It's possible to screw up an acceptance speech even if you haven't won anything, as Kanye West proved. West took the stage during Taylor Swift's acceptance of an MTV moonman, complaining that the award should have gone to Beyoncé.

She proclaimed, with all the worldly resignation a 20-year-old can muster, that "the world is b*llsh*t" and that fans "shouldn't model your life about what you think that we think is cool and what we're wearing and what we're saying and everything." After the speech, she was not, stunningly, offered a gig as a youth counselor.

Brando himself didn't bother to show up for his Oscar moment. In his stead, he sent Sacheen Littlefeather to read a statement about why he is refusing to accept his Best Actor award (for The Godfather).